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Happy New Year to everyone from both of us here at the Cellar!
Sparkling Wine Update
We are excited to announce we now have the sparkling wine process well in hand! Do you enjoy a bottle of bubbly for that special event or whenever the mood strikes you? You can now make any of our wines into a sparkling wine. Three sparkling kits (a Green Apple Riesling, a Strawberry Zinfandel and a Pinot Grigio) have gone out the door and we have another four in various stages of production. We have secured a pressure proof bottle supplier so your sparkling wine will be sure to store well. You can bottle in 500ml or 1 Litre bottles or a combo of both. You can also bring your own high pressure bottles in to use.
It takes an additional 2 weeks to produce the sparkling wine. Stop in today and get yours started!
Trivia Question of the Month – True or False. White Zinfandel wines are made from the White Zinfandel Grape. - Answer at the end of the newsletter.
Aging Your Wine
One of the questions we get asked all the time is about aging of your wine. The simple answer is that if your taste buds say its ready to consume who are we to argue. It is ready to consume after it’s in the bottle but a little extra time in the bottle will yield some great flavours if you give it some time. This is especially true of red wines. Now seeing that everyone has a different pallet for some folks a new wine is just perfect while others want the flavours to mellow out a bit.
99% of all wine is meant to be consumed within the first five years after bottling. That means that only 1% of all wine created should be cellared for many years. These wines have the preservatives, body, tannins, acidity, alcohol and of course sugar that will allow the wine to reach its full potential with a lot of time in the bottle. All of our kits that we have available at Vintner’s Cellar fall into the first category. They are meant to be consumed within 5 years.
Our concentrate kits, the Gold Medallion, mature faster than the full juice varieties. White wines are ready (both the Gold Medallion and the full juice kits) faster than our red wines.
So how do you know when it’s ready to drink? Here is what advice we offer to our customers. Take the wine home and the part bottle left over from bottling should be consumed within the next day or so. Take note of the flavour, smell and how it feels in your mouth. Then after some time (this is where your ability to wait comes in, some can wait to the next day, some the next week, while others can wait a month or more), we think a couple of weeks is nice starting point, taste another bottle and compare it to the first one. Now repeat the process noting the flavours each time until you find the right amount of time between bottling and when it tastes great to you.
Wine of The Month – Pinot Noir
The worlds most popular light-bodied red is loved for its red fruit and spice flavors that are accentuated by a long, smooth, soft- tannin finish. A versatile red wine for food pairings given the higher acidity and lower tannin. Pinot Noir tastes like it was meant for duck, chicken, pork and mushrooms. It has hints of cherry, raspberry, clove, mushrooms or vanilla. We like to decant our Pinot Noir for about 30 minutes which brings out the best in the wine. Pinot Noir grapes are primarily grown in France but the United States and Germany also produce about half of the worlds production.
Pairing: The mellow taste pairs well with pork, duck, mushrooms and chicken.
Comparable Wines: Bourgeron Rouge
Oak: None Body: Medium Aging: 3-6 months
Available In: Gold Medallion and Supreme Sterile Juice
Price Increase
As everyone is aware, prices for everything have increased and we are not immune to the inflationary costs. We will be increasing our prices starting January 30, 2023. The increase will average 10%. We hope you all understand that this is something we need to do to keep our business viable and will continue to support us as we continue to provide you with an affordable, high-quality wine.
Gift Cards - for the wine lover in your world
Treat that special someone with the gift of wine! Guaranteed to put a smile onto their faces. Our gift cards can be loaded with as much as you want to put onto them. Get yours today!
Trivia Question answer is False. Zinfandel is a red grape used to make both Red and White Zinfandel.